Comenity

Also, my Loft card and New York and Company they reduced the available credit on, which also made my credit score go down. I closed my Loft card with them today, as I just paid it off and am afraid they would close that too, and make my score drop even more. I'd rather close them myself than have them do it. They seemed to like it better when I was making the minimum payment each month. Try to be responsible and pay them off or down, and that's the thanks you get, screwed up credit!! Never again.

They are now refusing to give me ANY information about the fraud that transpired on my account because my account has been cancelled. They also said I need to reapply for a CC and they can't reactivate my old card. I just want to say, that never in my life, has the fraud department at a company been so rude. They never said that they were sorry this happened to me or how could they help. Every person I talked to was impatient and treated me like I was wasting their time and they needed to go back to watching TV. They wouldn't even give me basic information about the fraud so that I could check my other credit cards and accounts to make sure this didn't happen elsewhere.

Second, their payment system online does NOT always work. In fact, I have had SEVERAL occasions where my payments did not go through online but went through via my checking account and then I was charged a late fee and an interest charge by Comenity. On my last payment, this is what happened and they charged a late fee and interest charge. I asked for that back since I tried to put the payment through on the payment date and they said, “Sorry, your account is now closed, so you can't get anything back.”

I kept reminding them that I have been a member for over 10 years and a good one at that. The fraud department literally said to me, "that doesn't matter to us mam." Disgusting behavior. DON'T GET A CREDIT CARD WITH THEM. They will not help you with your account EVEN IF THERE IS A FRAUD ON IT. They should be dismantled and reported to whatever banking regulatory body controls. A fraud department is supposed to serve YOU, the customer, the victim, when a fraud has been attempted. It was very clear to me that they were only protecting themselves and not me.

I was quickly informed that he was going to charge me nine dollar fee. I asked him if he could do one time courtesy and waive the fee since I have never asked them to take a payment by phone the whole time I have been with them. Answer was flat out “no we cannot do any courtesies that’s why we give you the option to make payments other ways.” I immediately asked for their corporate phone number and conveniently the phone went dead. I call back when I spoke with a supervisor by the name of the Lakeshia ID number **. I asked her the same thing if she would be willing to waive nine dollar fee since I’ve been a great customer for 20 years, And the answer was adamantly no. So I said to her you would rather lose a great customer of 20 years because you will not waive a one time nine dollar service fee, her answer said yes and my account is now closed.

I know that this will bring my credit score down a little bit but at this point I do not care because I will never use them for any credit again. I am disgusted they are so concerned about a measly nine dollars, when God only knows how much interest they have made off me in the past 20 years. I have credit cards with other companies and I know for a fact if I called them they would be more than accommodating to waive a one time fee to make a payment over the telephone. Lol my payment is $24 to pay my credit card balance. If you ever see a credit card with this bank attached to it run as fast as you can and go with Discover or some other credit card. This company does not want good customers or they wouldn’t run them off after 20 years with their strict rules about charging nine dollar fee to take a payment over the phone. I’m definitely going to file a complaint just based on their LACK of customer service.

Depending on your time zone, the payment could be due as early 2pm on the due date. If you pay this bill online directly through Comenity Bank's website on the due date, but pay it at 2:01pm...Wham! You will be assessed a $37 late fee and finance charges. Well played Comenity Bank! Very sneaky and underhanded! Can you call Comenity Bank's customer service and get these fees waived? No, you cannot! Even if you are one of their best customers and charge $4000/month on this card, the answer is still "NO"! If this happens to you and you request that the account be closed, here is the response you'll receive--a very syrupy letter that says:

"Thank you for your time as a valued card member. We have appreciated the opportunity to serve you and are happy to assist with any future needs regarding your credit card account." "We have appreciated the opportunity to serve you and are happy to assist with any future needs"? How about crediting back your ridiculous late fees and finance charges on my account when the payment was paid on the due date Comenity Bank? You most definitely will not be helping me with any future needs; that I can say with 100% certainty. My experience as a customer using Comenity Bank's card has been the worst I've ever experienced. Comenity Bank has not helped me in any way, but in fact has "strong armed" me into paying unwarranted fees.

I find it laughable that Comenity Bank thinks they have "served" me, when in fact they have stolen from me by covertly setting up a system in the hopes that many unsuspecting customers won't look at the fine print -- that the due date they are referring to is not actually the whole day, but a partial day. I've had various credit cards over the past 30 years, but none as deplorable as this one from Comenity Bank. I wish I could give Comenity Bank a zero star review. They certainly deserve it for their unethical practices. Shame on you Comenity Bank!

Furthermore, Pottery Barn is no longer allowing customers to use their Pottery Barn card that is issued by Comenity Bank to make purchases unless they are at the store in person to present the card. This is also true of their reward certificates. I have been told by many Pottery Barn employees that their company is concerned about the lack of security that Comenity Bank provides their cardholders. With all of the above-mentioned reasons, as well as all of the negative reviews from Comenity Bank cardholders, you would think that Pottery Barn would provide a better card and rewards program for their customers.

Comenity should have sent a letter requesting the info that they needed to keep the account open. This whole thing sounds fishy and unfair to consumers. What can we do about this? I am furious that the only solution they offered was to re-apply for a new card. So I did, and still have not gotten a response. I have an excellent credit score in the 800 range and fear that it could be compromised by Comenity's careless action.

This pushed me all the way back like I never made a payment. Insult to injury... I'm paying more than the minimum $60 monthly and they're still taking $17 out of this! What the heck! Sooo unfair. You need to be sued again for these unfair multiple interest add ons even with making payments on time 6 months. Now the balance seems to never get paid down. Please don't open an account with this bank! Never Again. Highway robbery!

The CSR claimed they sent out 1 letter August 1st, and Gabriel states they made phone calls but that they do not leave messages. That is extremely unacceptable and I explained to him they should have done better at reaching out to their customers, they could have easily added pop-ups to the online portals requesting such information, sent out a secure message in the message center or left voicemails if they really did actually call.

I also explained to him how this hurts your consumer's overall credit, and that if they needed these addresses so by then why were they not obtained after the numerous credit increases they had given me recently. This company handled this matter very poorly and had no regard for its consumers. I will never apply for another card from this company and will no longer be shopping at Children's Place because they made the choice to switch from Citibank to this poor choice of a company as their credit card issuer.

After reading all of the credit score issues people have had because of this bank, I am a nervous wreck. Thus far I have not been damaged, an 834 on one reporting company and an 850 on the other. I say this for those of you who think we are whining because we haven't paid our bills and are just getting what we deserve. I have paid my bill and then much more and within a week of receiving said bill. I too am getting the run around in the past 6 weeks that mail is being returned, or I haven't provided a land line number; I do not have a land line number and have received all of my statements, so not sure what mail was returned. I have lived in the same house for 23 years, had the same job for 25 years and no land line for at least 3 years if not more.

I am waiting until Monday, because I said I would, but was curious about how many complaints had been filed with the CFPB about this company. After reading all the complaints and apparently financial damage from ruined credit scores Comenity has caused, I found only two complaints. Maybe venting in here makes you feel better, but if they cannot respond and give you proper resolution you are better served by filing a complaint with the CFPB. That will be my next step, especially if there is any form of retaliation that affects my credit score such as cancelling my card, dropping my balance or reporting negatively to the credit bureaus. I hope this helps and hope that I do not end up in the same place many of you are in.

She then told me if I didn't get a letter I definitely got a phone call. I told her I received no messages because if I had, I would have called them back. No they don't leave messages for privacy issues, they also don't send an email. When asked if the phone calls had their ID of Comenity bank or Ann Taylor along with number and her answer was no. I told her I hope she knows most people do not answer phone if they don't recognize the number. Frustrated by her lack of concern. Then she asked me if I wanted to open another account. Nope!

So I called the number given. I spoke with a nice young man who really tried to help. He said that he thought it was that my birth date was incorrect. And it was. He corrected it and thought he had cleared everything up. But his supervisor said the account was already closed, and I had to reapply. So I have been a customer of Talbots for 34 years, but no longer. I am guessing that my birthdate was the date that Comenity bank took over the Talbot accounts. So Good-Bye Talbots. I enjoyed your clothes for 34 years, but you no longer want me. Chico’s and J. Jill Here I come.

I just paid the minimum payment on my Torrid account, and they're saying that I didn't and I'll still get a late fee. Even though I paid the minimum ON TIME. They're claiming the minimum was $100 more than what I saw on my online account! I love shopping at Torrid - but if this is what I am going to have to continue to deal with then I'd rather cancel the card and just shop there with my debit card or cash. Disgusting company.

In fact, just a couple weeks ago I called customer service to update my account to my new mailing address. I asked if I could use a P.O. box, and they told me that was fine. When I called customer service today, they could not explain why it was ok a couple weeks ago, even though they supposedly knew that I needed a street address since earlier in the year. The story didn't make sense, so I asked to speak with supervisors that could reinstate my account. When I finally reached the top supervisor, she explained to me that only four days before they closed my account, they received information regarding the Patriot Act, requiring all accounts to have a physical street address. Any accounts that had a P.O. box as the mailing address was closed without any prior notice... no letter, no email, no phone call... though they have ALL of that information for me in my account.

She also said that since "the system" closed over 50,000 accounts, they could not reinstate any of them, even if they were long-term accounts in good standing, such as mine. I argued that a human created "the system", and whoever that is certainly could reverse it. She explained that it would be illegal, as it would be going against the Patriot Act.

I then asked her why none of my other 12 credit cards had said anything to me about the Patriot Act, nor had they closed my accounts. She had no answer or explanation. I got the feeling that there was something else going on, and the Patriot Act excuse was just a cover-up. She had the audacity to encourage me to reapply for the card! Excuse me??!! Why should I need to reapply for a card I have been using for almost 20 years??!! NO THANK YOU! You have lost this loyal customer and my business! I will never again have a credit card that is backed by Comenity Bank.

So, I made payments for almost a year and then I got my income tax and decided to pay most my balance down. So I get a letter in the mail after making my payment stating because I was a good customer and was paying my balance faster than the term agreement that I only had to pay 10$ a month for the remaining balance which was like 400$ so I do what the letter says and 2 months later I notice on my credit report that I have a later payment. Upon investigating I find that not only was thus affecting my credit but I was being hit with late fees. So I call to get the situation rectified and Comenity bank had the nerve to tell me that they did not send me such a letter with discounted payments. After arguing and being put on hold for almost 2 hours I was finally told to send a copy by mail so they can investigate the problem.

Well, they never called me back and I had to go through the whole process again. Another 2-3 hours going through reps that had no clue what they were talking about. I asked for a supervisor numerous times and they gave me the run around as well! So, now I got my attorney involved because this was ridiculous and I had the paper to prove. So, now my lawyer couldn't even get any responses right away. Then they told him the same thing. Send the letter detailing the discounted future payments.

In the meanwhile, my wife was shopping one day with the Victoria Secret card and spent 2hrs shopping and 20 minutes waiting in line to pay only to be declined at checkout. She called me upset and told me our card was declined! 9,500.00$ in credit and she was declined. So I had no idea why and tried calling and again, couldn't get anyone live and did not want to spend an eternity on the phone again. So time goes by and one day I decided to go to GameStop. I shopped, had everything I need and went to check out and low and behold, again!!! Declined!!! So I'm freaking out telling the store clerk this cannot be. I have more than enough credit!!! He calls and gets a hold of someone at Comenity after I don't know 30 minutes or so and they asked to speak with me.

He hands me the phone and they asked me who is my attorney's name I will leave out. And I'm like yes, that's my attorney. They said well you have to talk to your attorney. So this is when I finally put it altogether that Victoria Secret and Gamestop was also Comenity bank. So, I called my lawyer asked if he could find out what the heck was going on. It takes another 30 plus days and he told me since it's all through Comenity they put a hold on all my cards!! I was ecstatic!!! Wth does a totally different card have to do with the others!!!

So, long story short... never heard back from Comenity bank... My credit score dropped 100 points and Comenity bank wrote it off as bad debt!!! How the hell did they write it off as bad debt and I never even spoke to anybody!!! I am still trying to get this resolved. I made a complaint through TransUnion and waiting for response!!! This Credit Card company is a fraud!!! Stay far and clear from them!!!! I got punished for being a great customer and trying to pay my debt off early!!! What a joke???

After 10 days, I finally get a letter in the main from Comenity-Wayfair telling me they were unable to approve my application because they couldn't verify my social security number with that in my credit report and that I needed to call Equifax to find out the problem. I call Equifax and verify that my information is correct and there is no record of any discrepancies in my file. I thought maybe I had accidentally made a typo or something in my application so I called Comenity-Wayfair to figure out what went wrong. They told me that they were unable to run a credit check because they only had the last 4 digits of my social.

THIS IS A BLATANT LIE. I have proof that they ran a HARD inquiry into my credit report which they wouldn't have been able to do if they didn't have my full social security number. I also reviewed the application page again and it does ask for the full social so it doesn't make sense that I could have submitted the application without providing the full number. They just repeatedly kept saying that they did not run a credit check (again, huge lie) and that I could choose to reapply in 30 days (which by the way would require them to do ANOTHER hard inquiry). Now I have to go through the process of disputing this inquiry on my credit report because Comenity-Wayfair is a huge scam. I will NEVER submit an application with anything dealing with Comenity ever again.

They continued to inform me that it was Comenity Bank that closed the account and they would be the party to speak to if I wanted to see if there was any resolution. Today, I called Comenity directly, in turn passed off to the Kay Jewelers Division. I spoke with five different people attempting to resolve this closure. One supervisor advised that they attempted to call me three times this month alone. There was no such call. As I am speaking with the last "Supervisor", I explained how their own process has failed them since there was no communication with me regarding required information on my Kay Jewelers account. I do have another account with Comenity, which does have all the information they need.

One would think that their systems could do cross-checks between accounts to verify information. The Supervisor, in a way, agreed with that statement. However, since the account has been "Permanently Closed" there was still nothing that could be done. They would be more than happy to open a new account for me however... since I have had my account in excellent standing since it had been opened. The issue, that I exclaimed, was the impact that this would have on my Credit Report. 1) A credit Inquiry hit which has a low impact on your score; and 2) the age of credit history would be reduced which carries a Moderate impact on your credit history. While this may seem trivial to some, when you have worked hard to maintain an excellent credit score, why should a customer pay for the failed processes of a credit company?

Based on the other reviews, which I have seen here on this website, it is apparent that I am not alone. In a manner of speaking, I feel that there is a level of fraud being committed by Comenity Bank. I plan to follow up with the Comenity Bank Customer Dispute Department regarding my case. I shall also follow-up with the Credit Reporting Agencies along with letters to both the Attorney General's offices in both states, Ohio where Comenity Bank is located and my home state.